Saturday, December 31, 2011

Sadly, I can't find my list of goals for 2011 (I don't do resolutions, just some basic goal setting). I also can't find my 2012 day planner that I bought several months ago - GRRR - something tells me that should play into one of my 2012 goals!Anyway, what I remember of my creative/crafting goals & my resultsa are below... Tomorrow, I'll have a post with my 2012 creative goals.

My goal going into 2011 was to create 52 scrapbook pages. For me this was a HUGE stretch because up until 2011 I've been lucky to get 10-15 pages done per year. But, because of a couple different things, I not only hit that goal, but BLEW IT AWAY! At the end of January, I stumbled onto a website that mentioned Lain Ehmann's Layout a Day. I looked into it and decidedly immediately to try it. I knew that I may not succeed in making a layout every day for February, but even if I fell short, it would help me get more pages done. I also did Layout A Day in May & October. In March (after LOAD ended and I was going through withdrawal), I decided to try my hand at blogging. Add those 40 pages to the total and I would estimate I've done between 130 & 150 pages this year.

I attended an evening crop & an all day crop, and organized the first ever Crop for a Cure (Southwest Virginia) in May. It was an all day, fun filled crop to benefit Susan G. Komen Greater Roanoke. It was a success & I took Susan G. Komen a check for $885 in August!

This year on my blog, we did 40 Mystery Scrap Layouts from 31 different inspiration sources including 2 each from April Foster, Celeste Smith, and Diana at Wicky Sticket (P.S. check out her blog to see the amazing way she's making a difference in the lives of a group of girls in Jamaica. We did 3 pages based on Laura Vegas oages (funny story - when I was lucky enough to get to go to an Archivers Store in Kansas City while visiting my sister, I saw an example layout in the store with a picture of her kids) (You know you are an obsessive scrapbooker when you recognize the kids of published scrapbookers!). Anyway, I then had to google to try to see if she lived in that area. Sadly, she does not. Anyway - back to my list!

We did 4 pages from Kari Ann Sweeney. I love every page she puts on her blog! Must be the name.

My favorite page from Mystery Scrap this year is this one.

What is your favorite page this year & what makes it your favorite? Did you stretch your creative muscles? Did you scrap a favorite picture? Did you try something new? Use your favorite piece of patterned paper? Leave a comment - I'd love to hear about it.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Studio Calico is a fantastic site for inspiration. Each month they have a kit for sale & then add ons that you can purchase separately. I've never bought any, but it's only a matter of time. Here is a link to their Design Team Gallery - any and all of these make for terrific inspiration and use the most recent kit release - this time it's Brooklyn Flea (here is the link to the kit). Make sure to check out the other designers - it's a virtual who's who list of scrapbookers - most if not all are regularly featured in magazines. This week's page is another scraplift of April Foster (I think we did one of hers just a couple weeks ago.) Check it out here. It's the middle one.
I pulled 4-5 scrap pieces of double sided, patterned Halloween paper and started punching circles. After I placed my picture on the left edge of the page, I put the plate over top of it and drew a circle in pencil. Then I started randomly putting down the larger two sizes of circles. Then I put some smaller circles on top of those, then I added my embellishments. On April's design, she kept each circle mainly monochromatic, but I decided that mine would be more fun & playful by mixing up the colors. Don't stress out about a pattern for your circles/punches, just go with it. For my text, I didn't want white strips on white paper, so I cut a piece of the Halloween orange paper to 4x6, set my document size in Word to 4x6 and ran that through my printer. Now, here's my scraplift...

A couple notes - I just realized that I forgot that I wanted to add little letters to the Title so that it would say SCARY CUTE. Second, please ignore any orange cat hair on my black tablecloth if you see any - apparently some little kitten decided to climb on the table while we were out of town! Everyone have a great weekend and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

This week is a little tricky to explain, so I'm going to have you gather some supplies and then Friday, when you see the inspiration page & my page, you can decide exactly how to proceed.
Grab all of your circle punches. If you don't have circles grab a punch of some sort (heart, star, etc).
And, grab some paper scraps (patterned, card stock, etc).
Grab a bunch of buttons, and any other embellishments that would fit on your punches
Type your journaling on the computer
Of course you'll want chipboard, stickers or any other letters to make your title...
Oh - I almost forgot - grab a dinner plate. :-)
See you Friday!

Friday, December 23, 2011

I really enjoyed the page this week. It came at the end of a month long crazy crafting spree (pictures of that to come). I'm pretty sure my husband wants to move out from Thanksgiving to Christmas in our house. Not only is my scrapbook/stamping dedicated room a mess, but I wind up taking over both the kitchen & living room as well and he has to watch tv with the sound of punches crunching away or the ATG gun squeaking every time I put down some adhesive. Anyway, I finally finished all of my Christmas treat type projects (including the calendars I make every year), and figured I'd knock this page out. It came together very quickly, though I'm not thrilled with the corners of my border punching and I may add a couple more small embellishments in the title section. I've also decided I need some new border punches - I have two that I use ALL the time. Another reason I liked this is because the journaling tags on the original layout (here) look very similar to some that I have (Doodlebug) LOVE them! I don't know if they are the same, but I am guessing they are.
Here is my version of this layout using photos from my recent Operation Write Home card making session with my ZTA Alumnae chapter!

Monday, December 19, 2011

Less than a week until Christmas! Is everyone ready? I'll be keeping this very short, because I am NOT ready and I have lots left to do...
This week's page starts with 3 landscape photos, 2 3" tall and 1 4" tall.

Friday, December 16, 2011

This week marks the anniversary of when Chris & I started dating nineteen years ago. (December 12) so I chose this layout by Susan Weinroth using Studio Calico kit from November to do a side by side layout using a picture of us taken about a month ago and one taken of us early in college at a fraternity formal. We'd probably been dating for a year or two when the picture on the left taken. The one on the right was from just a few weeks ago. You can't see it because of the glare, but that last grey heart says TOGETHER. Earlier in the week I mentioned doing something that I've never done before on a page - I don't think I've ever scrapped any older pictures (aside from when I was very first introduced to scrapbooking via Creative Memories. Even then, the oldest pictures I ever worked with were from when Chris was in veterinary school after we got married. Happy sort of Anniversary!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The supplies you will need for this week's page are:
1 12x12 base piece of solid color cardstock
1 6x12 piece of solid color cardstock
Make one dark and one light
1 1"x12" strip of patterned paper, border punched paper or border of some sort
1"x4" piece of paper to print typed journaling or to handwrite journaling
18 punched pieces (repetitive design) use a variety of patterned papers, cardstocks or if you want, you could use all the same
scraps of paper for additional captioning (if desired)
Title - Cricut cut letters, chipboard letters or stickers. Take your title, count the letters & subtract from 18. Grab that many embellishements - could be buttons, gems, smaller punches, etc.
So - if my title is 8 letters, I'd need 10 embellishments.

Monday, December 12, 2011

This week's page is really special to me and also something I've really not done before. You'll have to come back on Friday to see why!
Select two portrait oriented pictures and they should be 3.5"wide by 4.5" tall. I'm using a comparison of two things.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Bella Blvd has some of the cutest lines right now - Winter Wonderland & Spring Flings & Easter Things. On top of that Laura Vegas (who we've scraplifted before) is the Design Team Coordinator, so OBVIOUSLY it's got to be fabulous. Our page is under the Winter Wonderland Collection - a grid on brown background paper. What do you think - how fun is this line? I'm hoping Santa will bring it to me for Christmas.
Here is my page (it's my sister, her little boy & husband (looks pretty good for having a baby less than two weeks prior, doesn't she! I'd love to see your interpretation! Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Supplies you will need this week are:
1 solid piece of 12x12 cardstock for the background
5 pieces of patterned paper 3"x3" (see where we're going with this yet?)
(if you have any kits with coordinating patterned paper, this would work perfectly)
stickers (1" or smaller) for title - you will have - you guessed it! - 3"x3" for your title
4-8 embellishments - varying sizes - you can go as large as 2.5" if desired
1 small strip of patterned paper - can be the same as one of the above or a 6th pattern ~ 3/8"x 2.25"
teeny tiny letter stickers (if desired)
See ya Friday!

Monday, December 5, 2011

How is it Monday again already? It really seems like all weekends ought to be at least 3 days, doesn't it?
Fun page this week - inspiration is on the blog of a designer that I can't wait to try. They've got a new line out right now that I am absolutely drooling over.
For this week's page, grab 4 square pics 3"x3". Check back Wednesday for the list of supplies!

Friday, December 2, 2011

This week's page comes from April Foster on the Studio Calico page. See it here.
I picked a photo of our Thanksgiving table. Because it was just the four of us, we enjoyed our dinner on our china, but in our pajamas. Hmmm, maybe a tradition in the making?
Here is my scraplift.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Don't forget, I said this would be a 30 minute max page...
Pull the following and come back Friday to see how it all fits together.
1 piece of 12x12 cardstock
1 piece of cardstock/paper to mat your photo. same width (or .25" wider), but add about 2.5-3" to the height of your picture
grab your paper scraps and pull out a bunch that look good together
pull your favorite border punch or two
a couple buttons that go with your scrap papers 5-8 (or other embellishments with similar colors
title letters (stickers, chipboard, thickers, etc)
journaling - there will be room for a sentence or two
title - plan on same with as your picture

Monday, November 28, 2011

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a fun long weekend. I stayed up late every night because Chris worked the weekend overnights which gave me lots of play time after the girls were in bed and now I'm bummed that this long weekend is drawing to a close. Worked on some more OWH cards, some treats for the local collegiate members of my sorority, created a cute little coaster for my scrapbook table, wrapped some Christmas presents, started teaching my kiddos how to cross stitch and unearthed my scrapping table. Now, it's time to get a page done - are you with me?
We'll work our way back in slowly with a super super easy page. Seriously - this one can be a 30 minute page (MAX!) You will want to grab one landscape photo - at least 5x7, but can be bigger - mine is 6x9ish. Go NOW. Grab your picture and come back Wednesday for the next step!

Thursday, November 24, 2011

This one is based off a card by Becky Roberts of Inking Idaho. I adore that woman. She has some of the most adorable projects & cards. Anyway - this is Basic Grey's Green at Heart line (the patterned paper) and it was fun to cut up about 150 strips of paper. This one is a bit more time intensive than my normal type, but I think the result is worth it.

This was a fun and simple one. Love the Itty Bitty Gumball machine along with the bright fun paper. I've been trying to find something to do with this paper for a LONG time. Couldn't quite pull this one together until I saw the ribbon at AC Moore. Then it all came together!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The one above we did not work on that day, but I've been working on it for a few minutes each day. It's really simple and I love the grey, white & black with just a little red. This next one is one of my favorites AND they don't get much simpler than this! We did get those done that day. Wish I remembered what brand of paper this was (brown with pink & red hearts) because I'd love to get a bunch more sheets of it!

Monday, November 21, 2011

These next couple posts won't have much writing associated - just pictures. Enjoy & have a wonderful Thanksgiving week!
These are the first three that we worked on. Unfortunately, I forgot the Word Window punch & ribbon for the pony one, so those didn't get finished. (That's probably my least favorite, but I thought they would be appropriate for birthday cards for little girls).

Friday, November 18, 2011

I'm writing this at half time of the VT/UNC football game Thursday night. I'm all warm and snug in sweats and fuzzy socks in my scrapbook room while Chris is turning into a human popsicle at the game in Blacksburg. I think the reason this page caught my eye in the first place is because of the little cute Christmas people. This one was on the Imaginisce blog, so I'm guessing it's Imaginisce product. For those of you who aren't familiar with Imaginisce - they are the makers of one of my very favorite tools - the i-rock. Here is the link for the inspiration page . It's the one by Courtney Lee. This is very funny to me, because that's my sister's name (her maiden name).
I did mine a little different - I mirrored the page and created a two page spread out of it using an Accessory Sheet that I bought a year ago by My Minds Eye. I say it and fell in love with it. It's perfect to use on pages about little ones at Christmas time, so I thought these pages about playing outside in the snowstorm of 2009 would be perfect.

Next week, for Thanksgiving, I'm going to take a one week break from Mystery Scrap to try to catch up on some other projects. But stop by anyway - each day I'll post a couple of the cards from my Operation Write Home/ZTA card making event this past weekend. We didn't get to all of the cards, but I'll keep assembling them so that by the time the box is ready to go, there should be 300 or so cards. Have a great Friday & hope everyone gets some scrappy time this weekend!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Did anyone miss me this morning? I usually try to do my posts the night before and have them post just after midnight. Last night we went to a fundraiser event for the March of Dimes and by the time we got home I was beat. So beat, that I apparently forgot to set my alarm clock and awoke to my 5 year old coming into my bedroom this morning! That meant I didn't 'get it done before work either!
Anyway - the page this week has very little in the way of embellishments! You will need:
1 piece of 12x12 cardstock or patterned paper
3 2-3" decorations (I used pre-printed die-cut people - Accessory Sheet by My Minds Eye)
3 or 4 1-2" decorations
sticker letters (fairly small ones)
your title will need to be pretty short
journaling could be in place of one of the 2-3" decorations
See you Friday!

Friday, November 11, 2011

Life got in the way of scrapbooking this week. Things have been so hectic lately - much of it self-induced, so I really can't complain. This weekend, I'm organizing a card making event with my sorority alumnae group for Operation Write Home and have busily been designing cards and making packets so we can make about 20 of each card. Since I've been so gung ho with that, I put off my Mystery Scrap page for this week and just don't have the energy this morning to whip one out. (The picture I finally chose last night just doesn't inspire me.)
So - the point is -I don't have a "my version" to show you today. I may or may not try to put one together once this card making event is done. (I should probably start working on next week's so I'm not a slacker two weeks in a row!)
I will try, however, to post pictures of each different card we make tomorrow, so that will be fun.
One more thing - I'm looking for someone who would be interested in guest hosting the Mystery Scrap sometime in the next few weeks. You would need to pick a page as inspiration, create one of your own based on that inspiration page and write out the supplies needed... Let me know if you are interested!
Ok - finally, here is the inspiration page for this week... have at it!
K

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Background paper - solid color cardstock
4 pieces of patterned paper 3"x5"(or complementary colored cardstock) one of these will double as your journaling spot, so graph paper, lined paper or light paper would be perfect
5 small (1"-ish) embellishments
1 brad or gem
paint (for splattering if desired)
2 little scraps of paper for subtitle, date, or phrase
twine - 3 4" lengths (or one 16" length)
stickers or cricut letters - fairly short title (width you have to work with is 3", but could break longer words up into multiple rows)

Monday, November 7, 2011

I need a super super easy one this week, so if you've not done one in a while, this would be a good one to jump back in on! Grab one 3x5 portrait oriented photo. If you typically scrap events, challenge yourself on this one to tell a story that is not event based. It could be about a favorite place, time of year, person, memory - whatever you want. See you back here Weds for the supplies list.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Super quick post this morning (I forgot to do it last night before bed).
As I said earlier in the week, this one is based of a sketch from Sketch Support.com. Click here and it's the third one down. Be sure to check out the rest of the site including the 2 page sketches.
Here is my take on the sketch - one of my last few pages for the informal Layout A Day that the ScrapHappy group did in October. Glad I made it through that (partly because I ended up being drawn as the winner! but partly because I now have 31 more pages done than I would've otherwise!) I really liked using the ribbon pieces because they turned out to be almost an embellisment. I love how they subtly add interest, color & texture. Hope everyone has a great weekend and can set aside a few minutes for some play time.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween! We had a great weekend - I hope you all had a fabulous one, too.
I think you are really going to like this week's page. It's based off a sketch and you'll need 2 4x6 landscape photos & 3 2x2 photos
See you Wednesday to gather up the supplies needed!

Friday, October 28, 2011

So you guys are going to laugh at me this week. I picked out this week's inspiration before the crop last weekend. I brought it with me as one of my page kits to work on, but didn't get to it that day. I thought to myself this is going to be an easy one! it should come together in no time at all! NOT SO MUCH! I spent my precious few minutes to scrapbook during the week trying desperately to pick out 6 little papers. Check out the inspiration page here. Gscrapbooks on scrapbook.com. Looks pretty easy, doesn't it. I probably spent 45 minutes or more just trying to pick the 6 papers. Finally, this evening (Thursday) I gave up and decided I'd let Evan pick my papers. She came in and started to hem & haw the same way I did - moving things around, pulling out other papers, etc. Finally I set a time limit and she settled on her 6. To be honest after she went to bed, I pulled out some other options and switched out one or two of her choices...
Anyway, once the papers were picked the rest came together really quickly. Sadly, I love the inspiration page, but don't love mine as much. SO, I will put it in the layouts completed pile & put the inspiration page back in my inspiration file to try to use again another day!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Well, it was a lovely weekend here. My inlaws were in town looking for a house so they were kind enough to watch the girls Saturday so I could go to a Crop! Ahhh. So much fun. I totally did not want to leave when it was time to pack up! But, I got some pages done - for me, actually quite a few (5 finished & 2 that were 75% done and I finished Sunday evening). I've come a long way in the past year. When I talked to my sister last night, she laughed and said "I remember when we lived in Massachussetts, it took you a year to do one page!" That's a slight exaggeration, but it could take me 4-6 hours to do one page because I'd move stuff around until it felt perfect. That way would NEVER work for me now, because let's face it. Very few people have time like that on their hands. I certainly don't have that much time to play anymore! So, scraplifting is my answer! Anyway - if you're one of the wonderful women I met yesterday - WELCOME to my blog - I hope you'll visit often!
If you are going to follow along with this week's Mystery Scrap, you will want to grab a 4x6 landscape photo & a 4x6 portrait photo. The inspiration layout has a white border, so if you are printing at home, print with borders. Check back Wednesday for the supplies that you will need to gather for your page. Try it with us one week - you may find that it is possible to squeeze a little scrapbooking fun into your busy busy lives each week!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Did anyone miss me last week? Last weekend was a crazy one, and I just didn't have the energy for Mystery Scrap. In addition to Layout A Day (an informal one for October) where I do a page every day for the month of October, Chris came home with the cutest little kitten Friday afternoon. Then Sunday, my sister had her baby unexpectedly 5 weeks early! Anyway, back to normal this week.
For this week, you will need 4 or 5 portrait oriented pictures. Those on the original layout appear to be 4 that are each 3" wide x 4" tall. The ones I used were 2.25"x3.25". Either mat one of the pictures that you want to highlight with a white border or print and trim to include a white border. Come on back Wednesday to see what supplies you'll need!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Supplies to gather for this week's page...
1 12x12 piece of cardstock
patterned paper 2.5x2.5 use one piece of paper for both or two different, but coordinating papers
(if you are using 3 pics, you'll only need 1, if 4 pics, you don't need any)
marker - light if you used a darker background paper or dark if you used a lighter background color
nothing really necessary for embellishments
title handwritten this week (yikes!)
journaling - about 2.5"w x 2" tall

Friday, September 30, 2011

Here is the layout inspiration for this week by KariAnn S. Her blog is one where I always find great pages (and I just looked back and realized we did another page from her blog in week 24. I did a very literal scraplift of this one - right down to the buttons & heart shape as the embellishments. As I was putting it together, I wasn't loving it - but didn't have the time to spend trying to pick different papers. (I think it was the colors... yellow is soooo out of my comfort zone, but I couldn't use anything blueish because the picture had a very blue cast to it that I was only partially able to fix in Photoshop Elements...) I used the sewing machine again - loving that - going to have to stock up on some more colors! As I was looking for embellishments, I found some Basic Grey buttons that I got last year and really hadn't touched and the colors went perfectly with the papers I had chosen and Mattie's skirt. Once I picked those out, my whole opinion of the page changed and I ended up being really pleased with it!

Monday, September 26, 2011

So, before we get to the pictures sizes for this week's Mystery Scrap, I thought I'd share something that cracks me up. I went to the Homeroom Parent meeting at the girls' school last week (I'm the homeroom mom for Evan's class). I introduce myself to the Homeroom Mom for Mattie's Kindergarten class and I don't remember exactly what she said, but the gist of it was - she writes a blog from the perspective of her son and Mattie is apparently a recurring character. I read it starting from the beginning (the beginning of this school year) and just giggled and giggled. It's very entertaining as anything from the perspective of a 5 year old would be! But I love that Mattie's caught this little boy's attention. My mom suggested printing it out so she can read it when she gets older - I'm sure we'll all get a kick out of it. Anyway, here's the blog.
Now, on to the Mystery Scrap. I didn't get anything done this weekend (scrapbooking wise), so I'll be doing this one along with ya. Grab one 1 portrait 4x6 and meet me back here Wednesday for the gathering of the supplies! Hope everyone has a great week!

Friday, September 23, 2011

Here is the link to this week's inspiration page. I loved the colors and since I still had out the papers from last week's page, I decided to use them again! This might just be the fastest page I've put together yet. I flicked some paint from a paint brush onto the solid color background, then once it dried, put down the stripes and the pics. (I "might" have gotten paint all over my jeans & remote for the tv - I'm not used to working with paint.) The stars aren't grabbing me (I outlined them with silver stickles), but you know what? It's a completed page!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Not much in the way of products that you'll need this week
1 piece of 12x12 solid color cardstock
4 12" strips of patterned paper (ranging in width from .5" to 1.25")
A handful of small embellishments (brads, eyelets, small punched shapes)
contrasting color paint (if desired)

Friday, September 16, 2011

This week, the inspiration layout is one I think I could use over & over again. Simple & a great way to use up scraps - I love it. Without further ado, here is the link...
Since you've already got your supplies pulled, it should go together very quickly. Trim the 3/4" pieces into 2.5"-3"-ish lengths and create a tail at the bottom. Starting at the left hand side, place them until you get to the tag in the middle. Then do the same working right to center. I put my tag down, then put adhesive just on the bottoms of my paper strips so they'd stay down, then lifted up the tag in the middle and sewed all the way across the page (back and forth). Then I replaced the tag in the middle.
Probably like most other Americans last weekend, I was feeling very reflective. Remembering where I was 10 years ago and reading stories about heroism, stories about the children of 9/11. Seeing pictures that I hadn't seen in years and remembering the horrors of that day, but also the amazing feeling of patriotism. The way the whole country seemed to pull together.
Anyway, this page is what I ended up with. I'd love to see your version of this layout.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Do you have a method to organize your pages into albums that works for you? It took me several years to figure out how I wanted to organize my albums. So, I figured I'd share what I have finally figured out works for me. Maybe some of this will work for you OR give you an idea of what would!
For about 3 years, I created pages but didn't put them in albums because I didn't know how I wanted to organize them.
Do I two of each layout so each kid could have one? What if we decide to have another baby?
Do I put Christmas & Birthdays in the same albums with vacations?
What about pages about personality traits or funny things the kids say? Or the more feeling based pages?
Sports photos? School photos? Visits to/from friends or family? ACCKKKKK!!!
Before I get to my actual system, it's worth mentioning I do all my pages on 12x12 patterned paper, solid color paper or card stock (not the album pages). I stick to mainly 1 and 2 page layouts and don't often do more than that on one topic.
So, here's my strategy...

1. Each of the girls will have a separate album for their first year. Evan's is a traditional first year album, and I'll do something for Mattie's, but I'm not inspired by the pictures from her first year. (Her personality is so much fun and the pictures just don't do that justice...)
2. Special vacations each get their own album (example - our anniversary trip to Punta Cana, or our family trip to Disney almost 2 years ago). If it's a long weekend or short trip, it goes in the year albums (#5 below).
3. Each kid will get a school album which includes 2 two page spreads per school year. (Each year I include school pics, class photos, photos from class parties, first day photo, picture of teacher/s and a pocket to include report cards, certificates and a couple favorite pieces of art work or school work.
4. Each will also have a birthday album. One of my favorite things is to plan parties - especially birthday parties. I always have a gazillion pictures I want to include which would result in at least 4-6 pages. SO, by having an album solely for birthdays, I don't feel like I have to restrict the number of photos I use so as not to overpower everything else. Included are an actual invitation, pictures of decorations, favors, guests, cake, gifts, activities, etc.
5. Finally, an album for each year. This includes everything else - sports photos, visits to family, personality/emotion based pages. I will include a one page summary of birthday parties in this one, and of course 1st day of school. So there may be some repetition between the different albums, but that's ok!
American Crafts D Ring binders are my album of choice. They are simple, reasonably priced and I love that they are three ring binders. It makes adding a page or moving pages around simple. As I put pages in, I don't worry too much about exact dates - if I know three pages were during January, I lump them together before February. I put in February, March and so on. Later, if I do a page that needs to go in February adding another page protector to put the page in takes only seconds. It doesn't bother me to have a blank space in there as eventually I'll have one to add later on and things can be easily shifted.
Does anyone else worry about goofy things like "when it's time for the kids to get the albums, what if they both want them?" I can't have them fighting over the albums, can I? (Yes, I realize neither kid might want them...) My father in law gave me the idea to scan them. I love this idea, because now I have the original page, the digital page (which could be printed if I/they ever wanted it to be) and if my albums were ever to be damaged or lost, we'd still have the digi copies. So, I create a bunch of layouts, then scan them all at once, then organize and add them to my albums.
Is anyone still reading? Have my laptop on and working on these in front of the tv is resulting in some really long posts! If you're still reading - thanks for hanging in there! Come back tomorrow to see the inspiration page for this week as well as my interpretation!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

I know I say this almost every week, but this week, our layout is really really easy. Probably less than 45 minutes total (including picking out supplies!) If you haven't played along in a while or are new to the KariScrap Mystery Scrap, join in! The idea is to follow along, spend a few minutes 3 times a week on each step. Monday/Tuesday pick out pictures you want to work on. Wednesday/Thursday gather the supplies you will need to create the page. Friday-Sunday assemble the page using the inspiration layout and my layout to put it all together! If you can carve out 45 minutes or so each week, you can put together a simple scrapbook page!
On to the supplies you'll need this week...
1 12 x 12 piece of solid color cardstock
1 tag (same color as above, or different color if desired) approx 1-1.5" tall by 3-4" wide
5 scraps of patterned paper .75" wide by at least 6" long
1 tiny label (a tiny piece of scrap paper would be perfect!)
1 very small embellishment (gem, brad, etc)
1 small embellishment (button)
letters for title (that will fit on your tag above) stickers, cricut, hand drawn (yes, that is an option!)
this is another page that has sewing on it IF you want... so if you like that look or want to challenge yourself to try something new, grab a sewing machine or a paper piercer & some thread!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

So, I've talked a little about scrapbooking with kids and a little about digital. Now, to combine the two! Both girls LOVE to work on the computer, but the time they spend on it and home is extremely limited. They get supervised computer both at school and daycare. Evan (older daughter) uses it sometimes for homework, but other than that, I don't let them do a whole lot. So, I got to thinking one day, that I bet they could pick up digital scrapbooking pretty quickly at this age. And I promised them that over Labor Day weekend, we'd each make a digital page. They LOVED the idea and begged me constantly over the course of the weekend to get busy! Before we get to the fun, let me tell you how I decide what I'm going to paper scrap and what I'm going to digi scrap. If it's a one picture page, I tend to paper scrap. This ends up being the more "feeling" type pages. And, I feel like I can really create beautiful pages with one photo and other tactile type products. But, if I'm trying to scrap something that's "event" in nature and might have lots of pictures, I lean toward digi. Why? Because it's easy and clean. You can find free templates all over the internet and squeeze 15-20 or even more photos onto a two page spread. How many photos would really look good on a 2 page paper spread? I think it's a lot tougher to have it look "put together" that way. For me, these events need to be documented just as much, but the journaling is more fact-based than feeling based. I don't know. It just works for me.So - back to last weekend's project! Saturday night, I sat down and went through older photos looking for something simple that I could put together a page on my laptop while sitting in front of the tv. Went back to 2009 and started going through my "best of 2009" folder - more on that coming soon. One of the first topics I came to in 2009 was making cookies. I opened up the folder - saw I had 6 pics to work with or choose from, hunted through my digi supplies stash (more on that coming soon also) and got started with a template that would accommodate the number of pics I wanted to use which was 4. I used one of the few digi kits (Flergs Over the Rainbow) that I actually bought to embellish the page & for papers. (For any children of the 80's, this set SOOOO takes me back to my childhood - lots of rainbows, unicorns, bright colors - very fun! Have to get my hands on some pics of my sis & I from that era and scrap those, too!) The template was by Scrapping with Liz - Recyclables. Ok - back to business... This is the page I created. Another reason I like digi is because you can use products over and over and never use them up. AND, just like paper, you can move things around until you get them just right! But you have more options. Don't like the color of a flower embellishment? You can change it! Want your accent paper to perfectly match your daughter's pajama top? No problemo! Anyway, without further ado, here is my page. (Journaling reads Sugar+Sprinkles+silly faces on an early January afternoon = priceless). Anyone like the scripty font? It is my FAVORITE FONT EVER! Yes, I am screaming - it's that good. It's CK Ali's Hand - here it is because I know you'll want it!

So, while I was finishing up my page, I thought - wouldn't it be fun to give the girls the same 6 photos and same digi papers and embellishment kit and see what each of them comes up with!?!?! It was! Evan went first Sunday evening - she picked another template by Scrapping by Liz - the left side of a two page layout - Double Album 6, rotated so all 6 landscape photos could be included - the template was initially for 6 portrait oriented photos. We removed some of the embellishments and replaced them with a bird, a unicorn, a butterfly, a flower, a heart & a star. She used the rainbow letters & liked a plain square of glitter (part of the Flergs kit). We used the ink dropper tool to pick up the color from her pajama top and color the little swirl on the left hand side of the page - super easy. Perhaps the neatest part of this exercise with Evan, was she picked up the basics of Photoshop Elements unbelievable quickly. (I have visions of her paying for college by doing graphic design work in high school...) The basic steps for filling in a template are: select the shape you want to fill, drag and drop the photo onto your page, group it with the shape layer below it, resize and and move to it's where you want it to be. Repeat with all your photos. She had it down after I told her once. She took to it like a fish in water. And, I bet with some more lessons, and practice, she will become the teacher & I, the student! I tried to influence her design and decisions as little as possible (but I did try to talk her into a different colored font for her journaling that might be a bit easier to read - that was a no-go). Whaddya think? Not bad for a 2nd grader, eh?

Now, we move on to Mattie's page (just turned 5). We did this one Monday evening. She selected only 4 of the pictures - 3 of the 4 were the same as mine. And she picked a template by Joey Lynn Manwarren of Every Day Imagination - I think we may have Mystery Scrapped her before - AMAZING. And, for a while, she'd do a free template every Tuesday. Just as with paper supplies, you gravitate towards certain designers, with digi, you do, too. Stumbling upon her blog was like Christmas morning to me! Anyway, check it out here. Same Flerg's kit - she used the same alpha letters that Evan did, the unicorns, a butterfly & a bird. I loved how she decided to do the glitter mats for the photos and her cute journaling says I love you & I love your cookies. I did not have her using the computer because I don't think she's quite ready for that, but it probably won't be too long until she is ready.

Overall, this was a really neat project, gave me some one on one creative time with each of the girls and allowed them to stretch their creative muscles. And, to see several different takes on the same pictures. They are already asking when they can make their next pages - so I'd consider this a success.

Are you ready to give digi a whirl yet? Do you have questions? Let me know and I'll try to answer whatever I can!

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Have you ever tried digital scrapbooking? If not, I think you'd be surprised at how much fun it is. Before I came to the conclusion that I had time in my crafting life for both traditional/paper scrapping and digi-scrapping, I really did not think it was for me. It's just not the same. You're not creating something with your own two hands using glue & bits of pretty stuff. To me, it was the equivalent of crossing things off on a paper to-do list (I never could get used to a digital to-do list...)
Have you ever created picture Christmas cards through a website like Snapfish or Shutterfly? Or done a photo book through a site like that? If you have, that is digital scrapbooking! It's really just the tip of the digital scrapbooking iceberg, though.

What finally got me to consider digital scrapbooking as a viable option, were the free collage templates that Scrapbooks etc. published on their website and became increasingly popular on pages featured in the magazine. I pinpointed that for me, what takes the longest (and was the most stressful) part of scrapbooking - was picking out the photos & deciding on sizes and getting them printed. I always hated feeling locked in on sizes. At that time, you couldn't readily get a 2x2 photo - you had to "crop" a 4x6 down to that size. That was not necessarily easy (or a good look!). The collages (see link here), gave me the ability to put a larger number of photos on a page, but still look nice & neat & clean. There were different sized/oriented blocks and using a few fairly simple steps, you could drop your pictures in, crop them, move them to see what looked the best. With just a little practice, I could put together a collage to be printed on an 8 1/2 x 11 in about 10-15 minutes. Print out the whole collage and use on a traditional page OR cut the collage into smaller pieces for a different look. I was now able to decide much more quickly on my pictures. That was my version of "hybrid."

Here are a couple pictures of pages created using the Scrapbooks etc. collages.

Are you interested in giving it a try? There are lots of programs out there and I'm sure they are all great. BUT, I'm going to recommend Adobe Photoshop Elements for a couple key reasons:

1 - you can download a free 30 day trial from the Adobe website. Try it, see if you like it before buying it.

2 - buying it is similar in cost to Stampin Up/Creative Memories programs but gives you the power of an Adobe product - it's kind of like a dumbed down Photoshop. You also don't need the most current release of the product. I've been using version 4.0 for a couple years now and have no real need to upgrade (I think they're on 8.0)

3 - almost any tutorial you find online, especially on the major digital scrapbooking websites, forum type websites, etc. are for Photoshop Elements.

4 - getting help from other digi scrappers will be much easier using Elements as that's what the majority use...

Friday, September 9, 2011

Ooohhh. I love this week's inspiration layout. Check it out here - it's by Marelize from Australia!

I love the color combination she used on her layout, but I wanted something a little bit softer for mine because of the topic. I tried to do a light to dark for my repetitive heart component and I simplified - no embellishments at the corner of the pic, no subtitle or journaling. The picture said all that needed to be said. as far as I'm concerned. The hearts were hand sewn to the page - I thought about using the sewing machine, but figured I could sew while watching tv with Chris. Anyway, Here is mine...

I would love to see what you put together based on this week's mystery scrap. Play along with us and join the Flickr group so we can share the love!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Have you ever scrapbooked with your kids? You'd be surprised how early you can start scrapbooking with your kids. My youngest, Mattie has loved "scrap-upping" with me since she was 3 ish. Which would put Evan somewhere between 5 & 6 years old. I mostly give them pictures that I've printed that are leftovers or aren't the greatest quality. Papers that I don't see myself using anymore get put into their stash and occassionally I'll get some stickers or ribbon for them. Turn them loose with a Tombo mono adhesive & some instruction and see what happens. They are learning so much - about colors, textures, what is pleasing to the eye. They work on their motor skills, cutting, even cleaning up & organizing. And, to top it all off, they are starting to learn the value of scrapbooking - how to use pictures and words to tell a story, to express themselves and to record important events in their lives. I can't wait to see how their pages evolve over time. Already, Mattie scrapbooks more like I do - pictures, paper, stamps or stickers & some journaling (maybe some ribbon), but Evan's pages are much more artistic - painting or drawing pictures instead of relying on patterned paper or stamps. Think about it... how can you incorporate that into your weekend or summer plans? It might just give you a little more time to scrapbook!

Monday, September 5, 2011

Happy Labor Day! I hope everyone is enjoying a day off from work. And if you are not off from work today, I at least hope you have a very nice work day!
This week's page uses just one photo again. (I figured we used enough on last week's layout to make up for it!)
So... one landscape 4x6. Go pick one out. Yes, right now! Especially if you're at home!
Check back tomorrow - I hope to post some pics from something the kids & I did this weekend. But if not, I'll see you Wednesday!

Friday, September 2, 2011

This is a fun one. I found this page by Tammy which I liked for an inspiration layout, and then discovered it was based on THIS page by Lisa Dickenson which I liked as well - see her blog here! So - take your pick and use either option! Below is my take on these great layouts. I'd love to see yours! Join our Flickr group at ............ and post yours under the tag Mystery25. Everyone have a great weekend - I hope you all get some scrappy time!

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

For this week's page, you'll want to gather the following supplies...
a 12x12 piece of solid color cardstock
2 strips of 12" paper .5" or skinnier - you may want to border punch these, so leave yourself a little extra than .5" if you think you might...
title letters - something a little bigger for this page would be good - maybe 1.5"-2" chipboard, stickers or Cricut cut letters
if you have a multi word title, grab some small stickers in a contrasting color
1-5 embellishments that coordinate with your page

Monday, August 29, 2011

I hope everyone came through the hurricane on the East Coast without too much damage. Here, we got a little more wind than usual and a tiny bit of rain, but other than that, we spent the weekend watching for news further east and hoping our friends & family who were in the path stayed safe.
This week, I'm working on a page about Mattie & Evan's first day of school. I have a bunch of pictures and found a perfect layout to use for inspiration. To do this layout along with us, gather 8 portrait oriented pictures that are 2.5" wide x 3.5" tall. Don't worry if you don't have that many, just grab some patterned paper that goes with your pictures (or solid color and you could turn one into a spot for journaling).
Everyone have a good Monday!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Ahh - made it to Friday of the first week of school. All day I felt like I could put my head down and sleep for 24 hours. Maybe it's related to the kids going back to school or maybe I'm fighting off something. Either way I'm looking forward to the weekend!
Before I show you today's inspiration page (by KariAnn S), I missed a piece that you will need - a third 12" small strip of colored cardstock. (I used 3 different, as did KariAnn in her original!)
I LOVE the inspiration page for this week. Check it out here...
I am a big fan of the ruffles on clothes that are so popular right now (or are they nearing the end of their popularity - I hope not!) Either way, I love them and need to go stock up before they do go out of style! I love the way the border punched pieces give the feel of ruffles, the white on white and even my husband commented on how much he liked this page especially the white letters on mostly white background. This would look great in any color and I can see myself using this idea more than once. You could use it for a really girly page, or in blues for a beach page. Fun! Here is my creation this week. I hope you all enjoy your weekend!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Well, we survived the first two days of school (although, they did evacuate the kids today after the earthquake this afternoon!) That was a bit crazy, but luckily no damage or injuries. My heart goes out to those that did have damage as a result including some people that I work with who live closer to the epicenter...
On a lighter note, for this week's page, gather the following and meet me back here on Friday to see how it all comes together!
2 pieces of solid color cardstock 12x12 (same color)
2 little strips of 12" paper - .5" or less in width is enough
gather all of your border punches or decorative scissors
6-10 little embellishments - .5"-1" flowers, buttons, punched items - keep it simple
journaling spot ~ 2.5" in diameter circle
title - chipboard letters, stickers, cricut cut letters, etc (the same color as the cardstock gives a nice effect, but is not necessary!

Monday, August 22, 2011

Today is the first day of 2nd grade for my older daughter and the first day of Kindergarten for my younger daughter. I am anticipating quite the range of emotions. I'm so excited for her and I know she'll do great, but on the flip side, I can't believe my baby is going to school.
Ahhhh. Backpacks are packed, first day outfits are set out, lunches are partially prepared & of course the camera is all ready to go. I'm sure you'll see the pictures before long as I'll be anxious to get them scrapped!
For this week's page, you have your choice! Pick one picture - a 4x6 will work and it can be landscape or portrait. It doesn't even have to be 4x6. 5x7 would work, 5x5 would work. It's up to you! The picture will be the star of the page... See ya back here Weds for the materials you will need!

Friday, August 19, 2011

Here is the inspiration for our page this week. There is soooo much inspiration in the gallery at Creating Keepsakes - thousands of pages. Next time you need inspiration, flip through until you find a page you love and then check out that person's gallery. Be forewarned though, you may end up spending hours looking at pages!
I changed mine a little bit from the inspiration page. I reduce the amount of little paper strips used and turned the long one into an orange tip belt to go with the pictures of my kiddo when she received hers. Also, I didn't add much in the way of embellishments - using just a couple orange Stampin Up! rhinestone brads in the lower left area of the collage. I like how the circles rhinestone brads reiterate the circle motif from the words in the title.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Gather the following and then come back Friday for the big reveal!
12x12 solid color cardstock
11x11 patterned paper
1 strip of .5"x 7 patterned paper
1 strip of .75" x 2.5" patterned paper
1 strip of .5" x 2.5" patterned paper
5-7 embellishments or coordinating stickers
letters (you know what to do!)
and small letters for part of the title (if desired)
journaling will be on strips - type it ahead of time if you'd like 5 or so about 4-5" (or fewer strips depending on how much you have to say!)
sewing machine or needle, thread & paper piercer or Sew Easy tool (optional!)

Monday, August 15, 2011

This week, you'll need 7 photos - 3 landscape & 4 portrait. They should be ~ 2-2.5"on one side and 2.5-3.5" on the other. (they can all be slightly different sizes or they can all be the same - but tend to the smaller sizes if you make them all the same).

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

The supplies you will need to complete your page are:
12x12 piece of patterned paper
1 piece of another patterned paper 4x6" (trim about .25" from 2 sides so it will be 3.75"x5.75") you will also want to do the same with the landscape picture
1 piece of solid colored cardstock 4"x12"
title - stickers, chipboard, etc (and tiny letter stickers if desired)
2-3 embellishments that will form a cluster
1 embellishment or punch - approx 1"
Check back on Friday to see how it all comes together.

Monday, August 8, 2011

For week 22's scraplift/Mystery page, you will just need 1 4x6 landscape photo. (I added to my page a picture that was about 2.75x3.5 portrait, but that strayed from the original design - you can make either work!

Friday, August 5, 2011

This week's inspiration comes from this page - at the Imaginisce blog (Makers of i-Rock). The creator of the page has a blog, here, but after going through quite a few pages on her blog, I couldn't find this one, but I wanted you to check out her other stuff too - some great scrapliftable stuff!

This is a page from when my adorable nephew Tanner was born (~3 years ago). I figured I should do a page on him before his baby brother is born in a couple months! Don't they all look adorable? I opted not to put the embellishments at the bottom of the pictures, but thought about doing some little light blue bows. May see how I feel about it a week from now and go from there. What do you think?

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Let's see... Supplies you will need this week are:
12x12 card stock for background
5.5"x10" strip of patterned paper
letters (you know the drill)
~ 5 punched shapes
3-5 buttons, stickers or other embellishments that can be layered on top of punched shapes
3-5 similar embellishements (can vary slightly in size)
~10-15 tiny embellishments (brads, gems, etc)
title can be 1, 2 or more words
journaling will be on strips 5-6 of them, so you can even type it up ahead of time if you want!
Check back Friday to see how it all comes together!

Monday, August 1, 2011

So it took me all weekend to finish up this page. I used the layout on page 100 of Scrapbooks etc by Shannon Zickel - here is a (not very good) picture of the magazine page. I took several and couldn't get it to focus properly. Hopefully it'll be enough for you to see the basic design.

I thought this would be a great page to use for pictures from this past weekend of my kids playing with the Pomeranian puppies and my in-laws' house. They breed Pomeranians and they are so good with the kids. And of course the kids loved being surrounded by little dogs - they think they are all puppies (even though most of them are full grown). For my page, I had a hard time picking a background color and once I finally found one, I had NO idea what additional colors to add to it. I pulled out my Stampin Up! Color Coach (which I've had for at least 6 months and never used before!) I found the closest SU! color match and it suggested a brown & a light pink so I thought "What the heck?" I tried it and I really like the outcome! Anyway - better late than never I guess - here is my week 20 page. Enjoy!

This week's mystery scrap is another super easy one. Now that Chris is home almost all the time, I find myself only scrapping in 10-15 minute intervals... SO, it may be really easy ones for the rest of the summer at least. I can hardly believe there are less than three weeks until the kids go back to school! How did that happen?
Anyway - for this week, you will need 2 square pictures that are 4"x4".

Friday, July 29, 2011

Today's post is going to be delayed. LOVE having my husband home more often, but it is definitely slowing down my scrapping. If you want a preview of this week's page inspiration and you happen to subscribe to Scrapbooks etc Magazine - it's the layout on page 100. I've been unable to find a blog for Shannon Zickel whose page it is, so tonight I will have to figure out how to post it so you can see!